Footage Of “Fake Gun” Palestinian

An Aussie immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave is founder and managing editor of Israellycool, one of the world's most popular pro-Israel blogs (and the one you are currently reading)
He is a happy family man, and a lover of steak, Australian sports and girlie drinks

Last week, I blogged about the palestinian who was shot dead after pulling a toy gun on an IDF soldier. The Border Guard spokesman released the following statement:

“At about 6:30 pm a Palestinian youth arrived at a Border Guard post near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. When one of the soldiers asked him to present identification, the youth attacked him, pulling a gun and holding it to the soldier’s head.

“A female Border Guard officer standing at the post saw what was going on and opened fire. The youth was critically injured and rushed to a local hospital, where he died of his wounds.”

The palestinian and Arab sites denied this is what occurred. For instance, Al-Haq, “an independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation based in Ramallah,” claims:

The circumstances of his death are currently unclear. However, according to Al Haq’s preliminary investigations, Muhammad left his home yesterday evening at approximately 6:30 pm in order to buy a cake and passed by Checkpoint 160, which is some 100 meters from his house. When he passed the checkpoint, Muhammad was reportedly holding a lighter that resembled a gun, which aroused the suspicion of the Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint and caused them to have an exchange of words with Muhammad. Following a discussion with the soldiers, Muhammad was shot twice, once in the abdomen and once in the chest, at a short range

Accepting the palestinian narrative, anti-Israel blogger Richard Silverstein has used Twitter to hound the IDF to release footage of the incident (not to mention revealing the identity of the border policewoman who he says “murdered” the palestinian).

What we are seeing in this footage is the palestinian attacking a Border Police Officer, pressing this “gun” to his throat. The police officer struggles free as the female police officer neutralizes the threat. Clearly not just an exchange of words with a guy on his way to buy a cake.

Of course, I am of little doubt Silverstein, Al Haq, and fellow Israel haters will claim the footage is fake. But my concern anyway is what reasonable people think.

It is hard to tell what’s going on – Muhammad and a soldier can be seen exchanging blows, and it seems that the Palestinian is the first to try and hit the soldier (0:33). The alleged gun cannot be spotted, but the clip – which is slightly edited (0:24) – is very dark. The second soldier comes out to the street and when the soldier and the Palestinian get away from each other, she shoots Muhammad (0:48). Unless the teen was indeed holding a gun, the soldiers don’t seem to be under threat at that moment.

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